You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami -- Art by Robby Campbell

This is the last installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago today, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release.

Intended as a tribute to Nirvana’s pièce de résistance, Nevermind Miami is also a testament to the local music scene, both its vibrancy and its generosity. All of the bands/musicians we asked to take part responded with a hearty “hell yes” and crafted their covers with intense sincerity and prodigious badassmanship. Thank you to all of them for making this series — which you can stream in its entirety at beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami — an enduring work in its own right, and keeping the ghost of Kurt Cobain off our backs.

First up we have Lil Daggers yanking “In Bloom” out of the studio and dragging it by a fraying rope through the swamp. Proceeding at a chain-gang pace, the eerie rendition starts with a crackling crack of distortion and ends in a house (a hideout perhaps) on the bayou. To get more Lil Daggers in your shamelessly sunny life, check out their self-titled LP, released in April, on bandcamp.

You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami -- Art by Robby Campbell

This is the sixth and penultimate installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release.

First up is Sam Friend with “On A Plain”. The song opens with a few words from L.A.-based poet Larry Colker (Friend’s uncle) and then bursts open with a crunchy guitar progression that conjures a slow, swaggering tyrant taking giant steps in your direction — a rhythmic departure from the breezy-paced original. The cover features Friend on guitar and vocals, Derek Fairholm on keys, Jorge Balbi on percussion, and producer Luke Moellman on drums. To listen to more of Friend’s music, check out the g’damn good four-track sampler we premiered last week. You can also visit samfriend.com.

You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami.

This is the fifth installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release. We will be (and have been) posting the covers throughout September in no particular order.

To kick off the second half of the series, we have a shitkicking punk/hardcore/thrash quintet covering the most shitkicking song on Nevermind. Founded in 2005, Eztorbo (formerly known as Eztorbo Social) takes “Breed” head on, speeding it up by a fraction while otherwise staying true to the raunchy riffed, drum-rolling, mosh-pit-a-making original. To learn more about Eztorbo (whose name means “nuisance” in Spanish), check out the band’s Facebook page. You can also catch them live at the Chum Bucket, one of the venues featured in our ongoing Miami DIY series, on Friday, Sept. 30.

You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami.

This is the fourth installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release. We will be posting the covers throughout September in no particular order.

First up, we have Animal Tropical’s take on “Lounge Act”. Made up of Jose Castello (lead singer), Jarrett Hann (bass), Kris Pabon (guitar), and Jorge Rubiera (drums), Animal Tropical may well be the opposite of Nirvana, the cackle to its groan, the bongo to its floor tom, the dandyish bow to its destructive stage dive, the Miami to its Seattle. So anyone familiar with the band knows they’d never do the cover straight.

Built on a few chords and a relatively steady mood, “Lounge Act” is one of the simpler tracks on the frill-light Nevermind, but Animal Tropical turns it into a sonic journey that starts on a humid side street and ends up in the Gravitron by way of a smoky lounge and a skanking punk pit. (Trust me: You will have exactly this experience.) It’s a wild, deconstructed departure from the original that plays playfully on the song’s sarcastic title. Listen for yourself, and then check out Animal Tropical’s Facebook page to hear more of their music.

You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami.

This is the third installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release. We will be posting the covers throughout September in no particular order.

First up in this installment, we have Miami-born, L.A.-based singer-songwriter Rachel Goodrich covering “Territorial Pissings”. The song is the grungiest on Nevermind, with Kurt Cobain straining both his vocal chords and guitar strings to the snapping point and Dave Grohl doing his darnedest to make toothpicks of drumsticks.

Backed by harmonica, Goodrich slows the track down on a loose-strung acoustic guitar and channels Cobain’s inner bluesman, which didn’t always shine through Nirvana’s studio output but played an exquisite role in the band’s masterful Unplugged album (see “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”). To listen to more of Goodrich’s music, visit rachelgoodrich.com (aka Yellow Bear HQ).

You can keep up with Nevermind Miami throughout September on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami.

This is the second installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release. We will be posting the covers throughout September in no particular order.

First up in this installment, we have PLAINS covering “Lithium”, track five on Nevermind. PLAINS frontman (and, at times, only man) Michael McGinnis recently released the band’s debut album to (our) rave review. A prolific songwriter and self-described “studio rat”, McGinnis says he doesn’t have “any memory of hearing Nevermind for the first time.”

“It’s just one of those records that was always around cause everyone had it,” he says. “Any time I revisit it though, I realize more and more how much it influenced me.”

Revisiting “Lithium”, McGinnis accentuates the bass-driven groove of Nevermind’s grooviest track and adds a church-worthy Mellotron behind Kurt Cobain’s dismissal of Sunday morning in a cover that pays homage to the original tune.

You can listen to all the Nevermind Miami covers released to date on beachedmiami.com/nevermind-miami.

This is the first installment of Nevermind Miami, a tribute to the generation-defining album Nirvana released 20 years ago, on September 24, 1991. To commemorate the occasion, we have asked local musicians to cover each of the 13 songs on the original release. We will be posting the covers throughout September in no particular order.

It was the summer of 1997 when the opening riff of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” brightly burst out of the bombed-out speakers of my Sony boombox. The station was the now-defunct 94.9 Zeta, South Florida’s FM rock outlet for over 19 years before it was reformatted in 2005 as a Reggaeton station and then, ultimately, Spanish Top 40.

I was 11 and was listening in as part of my beginner’s education as a late-blooming “head banger”. You can bet rock and roll in north residential Miami Beach at the end of the ’90s came out looking funny. My mother only indulged big pants to a point but approved of my allowance money going toward Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind cassettes. Those Casey Kasem-friendly alt tapes built a bridge to Metallica CDs which, in turn, led to Zeta, which had a whole program devoted to the heaviest band I had ever heard.